Water-main break causes flooding, back-ups

Some residents west of North Lakeview Avenue on Wilshire and Devonshire drives got a rude awakening Friday morning.

By Rosalie Curriercurrier@sturgisjournal.com

Some residents west of North Lakeview Avenue on Wilshire and Devonshire drives got a rude awakening Friday morning.

Water was flowing into their basements through toilets and floor drains. A water main had broken at the corner of Lakeview Avenue and Wilshire Drive.

Chris Hackman at 804 Wilshire took pictures on his cell phone of his basement toilet, which turned into a fountain.

“I’m guessing the water was going up an inch every 20 minutes,” Hackman said.

A neighbor, Phyllis Wolfe, woke Hackman around 5 a.m. after she encountered a flood of her own.

Phil and Phyllis Wolfe, who also live on Wilshire, were getting ready for work when they heard gurgling in their basement drain. They immediately started using a shop-vac, but it didn’t work fast enough.

“It makes you think what the people in the storms felt like,” Phyllis said. “You’re helpless. There’s nothing you can do.”

When they went outside “there was a river on the road,” she said.

Melissa Gates of 704 Devonshire was going to take a shower before work, but there was no water.

“I don’t know what to do without water,” Gates said.

She called her her fiance, Dave Cramton, at work. He said to check the basement.

“I walked down and — ‘sploosh,’” Gates said.

Another neighbor, David Hurley, of 715 Devonshire Drive, was at work when his wife called: Their son had tried to out of bed in a basement bedroom and stepped into water.

She pointed out homes that were dry and those that were flooded side by side.

Green Servpro of Cass and St. Joseph County and ServiceMaster trucks were in front of the affected homes.

If damage had been only from the water main break, it would have been bad enough, they said. But word on the street was the water went into the sewer backing it up.

“The water was brown,” said Janice Cook of 717 Devonshire.

Nine inches of it came up through Cook’s floor drain, ruining her furnished basement.

A statement from the city of Sturgis indicates the water main break was at the intersection of North Lakeview and Wilshire Park Drive.

“The break resulted in the complete shutoff of water to several houses in the area while repairs were completed,” the statement said.

A drop in pressure during repair may have caused bacterial contamination in the water system, said city officials. A routine precautionary measure is to ask residents in the affected area to boil water or use bottled water for drinking and cooking until sample tests come back clear.

Samples will be collected to determine that water quality meets the state drinking water standards. When tests are clear, residents will be informed, likely sometime next week.

Questions regarding the drinking water notice may be directed to the City of Sturgis Department of Public Services at (269) 651-2879.